Steamed Glutinous Rice with Chicken (Lor Mai Kai)

My very first post! 😀

I’m new to the blogging arena but thanks to the inspiration and encouragement from my friends De Ming and Elsie, here I am!

Today I was flipping through one of my cookbooks in order to make something quick and simple for dinner. I came across the recipe for steamed chicken glutinous rice a.k.a Lor Mai Kai (in Cantonese) and I started smacking my lips. Lor Mai Kai is a popular dish served for Dim Sum and breakfast and usually served in individual bowls. But personally, I could eat it for any meal!

Alas the recipe required a lot of work — marinate the chicken, steam the rice alone first (45 min), then mix in the rice seasonings with the rice and then greasing 12 individual bowls and filling them with chicken, mushrooms and rice and THEN steaming the bowls for another 45 minutes.. WHO HAS THE TIME?!

So I sat down and started modifying the recipe into a one-pot meal to make my life easier. The results were amazing! The taste and texture was exactly how I remembered it in Malaysia. The hubby loved it, so did my picky little daughter.

*Note that my rice cooker is a Zojirushi NHS-18 10-Cup Rice Cooker/Steamer & Warmer and all the rice, mushrooms and chicken fitted just perfectly with barely room to spare. If you have a smaller rice cooker, please adjust the recipe accordingly.

1 pot meal: Steamed Glutinous Rice with Chicken (Lor Mai Kai) Recipe 

(adapted from The Best of Chinese Cooking by Betty Saw)  

Serves: 6      Prep time: 1hr (Marinate + prepare the rest)      Cook time: 30 min          <View/print recipe only>

Ingredients

• 2lb chicken (boneless skinless chicken thighs)
• 1lb glutinous rice (about 2 cups)
• 10 dried chinese mushrooms (soaked till soft or microwaved in water for 10 min & cut into strips)
• 4 shallots, sliced or 1 cup of store bought/homemade fried shallots

Rice seasoning

• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp thick soy sauce
• 1 tsp five spice powder

Seasoning ingredients

• 4 tbs oyster sauce
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp white pepper
• 1 tsp cornflour
• 2 tsp rice wine
• 1 tsp thick soy sauce
• 2 tsp light soy sauce
• 2 tsp ginger juice
• 1 tsp sesame oil

Garnish

• 2 stalks spring onion, chopped
• Red chillies (if desired)
• Coriander leaves

Directions

1. Cut chicken into 1/2 inch thick pieces. Season with seasoning ingredients for about an hour.
2. Wash and drain glutinous rice. Pour into rice cooker.
3. Add a little oil in a small pan and fry the mushrooms for about 3-5 min.
4. If using fresh shallots — lightly brown shallots in the pan with some oil. Pour fried shallots and rice seasoning into the rice cooker and mix well with the glutinous rice.
5. Add water to the rice cooker till it covers the rice for about 1/2 inch.
6. Place mushrooms and the seasoned chicken in an even layer on top of the rice. (Mushrooms first, then chicken on top — the idea is to have the chicken steamed on top of everything instead of sitting in the water)
7. Turn the rice cooker on and walk away! 🙂  When done, you could mix the rice, mushrooms and chicken up all together or separate the mushrooms and chicken and serve them in individual bowls by placing some mushrooms and chicken at the bottom of each bowl and then pressing the glutinous rice with the back of a spoon to fill the bowl.
8. Serve hot with garnishing and chill sauce (my favorite: ABC Indonesian Sambal Manis Pedis – Hot & Sweet Chili Sauce)